Toddler Tuesday: An Old Pro

Eliza is such a good walker these days.  Not only that, but she has figured out how to use her big girl roller toy!  This takes quite a bit of coordination to push or pull while walking, especially for our itty bitty. She had so much fun this weekend taking it for a walk.  Check it out for yourself below!  :)

Pizza Three Ways

Who doesn't love pizza?  We have plenty of love for pizza in this house.  And I really enjoy making our own pizzas.  That dates back to my first "real" job, back in my senior year of high school, at the local Rochester pizza shop Nubiano's.  I had so much fun working there and one of my favorite parts was actually making the pizzas, just so I could play with the dough!

When we make pizza fresh at home, I do sometimes try to make dough from scratch.  And although I'm a decent baker I usually don't have the patience to plan far enough ahead for pizza dough and any "quick" recipe I've tried just doesn't taste that great or have good texture.  So, instead of making dough we try to buy fresh raw dough balls either from a pizza shop or the grocery store--quick and easy.  (We're going to try Sam's next--we can get a case of dough balls and put them in the deep freezer)

I have been collecting pizza recipes for several months on Pinterest (you can check that out HERE).  Last week we decided it was finally time to try some!

First things first, I got the dough out of the fridge to get the chill off and let it rest some. If you don't let the dough sit and rest some, it'll be too elastic and nearly impossible to work with. I also then put our pizza stone in the oven and preheated to 500 degrees for one half hour--this is so important!  A hot hot pizza stone ensures the bottom of your crust gets nice and crispy.

Working the dough:  I use a combo of hand stretching and then rolling the dough.  I learned a few tricks at Nubiano's but am nowhere near talented enough to hand stretch the entire thing (although I was better by my third pizza).  Here's my method:  lightly cornmeal a pizza peel.  Flatten the dough into a disc and then working from the middle, flatten it some more by pushing out toward the edges.  Then, I pick it up and stretch the edges, gently, by turning the dough in a circle, vertically so gravity helps the stretching.  Then I'll gently stetch the dough on my knuckles to make a larger disc.  By now the dough is fairly thin.  But, to get it to the perfect thickness, I then place it back on the peel and use a rolling pin.  Then it's time for toppings!  I assemble the pizza while on the pizza peel, and when finished, slide the dough onto the hot pizza stone in the oven--this is why the cornmeal step is SO important.  Without adequate cornmeal, the pizza will stick and you'll get a folded mess, probably on your oven floor.  I sometimes use a pancake turner to get the movement started.  Each pizza I bake for 11 minutes--it's the perfect amount of time for our oven.  I use the pizza peel to get the baked pizza off the pizza stone--I leave the stone in the oven to cool down completely before removing.

Onto the actual pizzas!

The first pizza I made sounds crazy:  Strawberry Balsamic Bacon Pizza by ANNIE'S EATS.  What's that, you say?  Strawberry and balsamic vinegar on a pizza? Yessir.  And a few other ingredients.

Siracha, Strawberry Preserves, and Balsamic Vinegar: crazy, right?!
Ignore our ugly wall--we get tile tomorrow!

So those three ingredients make up the sauce.  It ended up tasted somewhat similar to a bbq sauce, sweet and a touch of heat.  For this pizza, the toppings were cooked chicken (we got a roasted grocery store chicken), diced bacon, sliced onion, mozzarella cheese, and diced strawberries.  OMG.  It was seriously amazing.

The first bite was scary, but I couldn't wait to get my second bite!

This one gets a big thumbs up (with a mouthful!)!  Eliza chaperoned.

The second pizza I made (the same night) was also from Annie's Eats and she calls it SPINOCCOLI PIZZA, inspired by a Bloomington pizzeria.  It started with a cream-based cheese sauce.  Super rich and delicious.  Gary and I love broccoli on pizza, so we knew this would be right up our alley.  Add in spinach, mozzarella, and cheddar cheese, and you have yourself an amazing pizza.

Hello, cheese.

We ate it so fast I almost didn't get a picture!

Finally, tonight we tried a Greek pizza recipe.  Greek pizza sounds pretty simple, and it is.  But THIS RECIPE has a special something called "crazy feta" that made this pizza truly special.  In short, crazy feta is a feta cheese dip made with roasted garlic and jalapeno, lemon juice, and olive oil.  The crazy feta, plus mozzarella, onions, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, more garlic, and kalamata olives (for Gary's half) made for a hearty pizza.  We left off the tomatoes in the recipe, and instead added some tomato sauce for the base.  Great addition and I strongly recommend it!  We all really liked this pizza, but after a couple slices the jalapeno was burning my mouth a bit!  Still, a great dinner and with our Greek salad, it was fantastic.  OH, don't pay attention to the recipes instruction to preheat to 375 and bake for 30-35 min.  Get yourself a pizza stone, crank it to 500 and preheat for 30 min, bake for 11 minutes and you'll have a perfect pizza.

On our well-used pizza stone

Can't wait to dig in!

I hope this inspires you to create your own pizzas at home!

Flashback Friday

Gary and I have been going through many of our first videos of Eliza.  We can't believe it's been nearly 14 months since we met her and brought her home.  With that in mind, we thought it'd be fun to share some of videos we've taken of Eliza, but haven't shared yet in a "Flashback Friday" post each week.  Some weeks though, we might not post about baby at all, for example, this first one will have two topics:  one baby, one not!

First up, this is from Easter weekend.  A truly funny video of Eliza and my mom.

Second, we are two days away from our 6th wedding anniversary!  I wanted to share some pictures from way back then.  :)  This is from almost exactly six years ago, when we went to Indiana Beach for some pre-wedding family fun!

future Mr. and Mrs.

Ben, Travis, Alissa, and Adam

Troutman sibs

My big sisters

Dad driving carefully!  :)

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any with Mom in them, sorry!

Toddler Tuesday (a day late!)

Sorry, I'm a day late! 

This past week, Eliza has become fascinated with opening and closing doors.  With supervision, of course, we don't want her to smash her fingers!  It has brought her minutes upon minutes of entertainment (that's a long attention span for an almost-14-month-old!).  It's also a favorite activity to shut us up in the pantry, or closet, or wherever we might be.  She's exploring more each day!

A Little Trim

Last night I trimmed Eliza's bangs just a little.  This is actually the second time I've done this, but this time I purchased special scissors and took more care.  I think it looks really nice.  :)

And then Eliza wanted to play peekaboo!

And then she wanted the camera for herself!

Toddler Tuesday: boo boos

Eliza has reached another milestone of toddlerhood--boo boos!  Eliza's first boo boos she got a couple weeks ago while we were at the pool.  She started walking a little too fast on the concrete and fell on her knees scraping them both a little.  :(  She really didn't cry though!  Unfortunately, about a week later she fell on concrete at daycare and it opened up one knee's scrape but even worse.  That time, I'm told, there were quite a few tears.  And then just 3 days ago it opened up again and got Gary's shirt all bloody--whoops!  Hopefully it heals soon.  Then, today at daycare Eliza bumped her mouth on a shelf and popped her bottom lip open.  It only bled for a couple minutes, but there were tears!  And now there's a spot.  Poor girl!

That's not so bad.

Looking cute with her scrapes.

Look at my swollen lip!  

But it's ok, I can still smile through it.

See!  big smiles!  :)

Trip to the Indiana Supreme Court

A few weeks ago, the Supreme Court had an employee family dinner and trip to a baseball game--we attended the dinner.  We had a very good time socializing with my coworkers and the Justices.  Eliza was all over the place!  The Statehouse has plenty of open space for her to walk and attempt-to-run in!  We also had fun exploring some of the spaces in the Statehouse like...

The old-fashioned phone booths!

The Supreme Court bench and Justice Rucker's seat.

Eliza wasn't that into the pictures.

Enough already, Mommy!

Sitting second chair with Daddy at the State's table.

Giving Daddy important advice for oral argument.

Practicing for oral arguments!

Walking around.

Finally some more smiles!  Sitting in Mommy's chair.

Doing some typing for Mommy.

Being a silly goose with Daddy!

That's the Indiana Supreme Court seal on Eliza's yellow onesie.  I bought that from the e-gift store that the Supreme Court "opens" a couple times a year while I was pregnant.  I'd been waiting for the perfect opportunity for Eliza to wear it and this night was it!

My time working for the Supreme Court is drawing to a close, and it's very bittersweet!  I'm happy to have these memories with my family and coworkers.

Toddler Tuesday

**This is the first "Toddler Tuesday" post, in which we will chronicle something Eliza had done/is doing that marks her passage from baby-to-toddler.  This is our attempt to keep us accountable for blogging more often!  :)  Other special days may be added this week, as well!**

On June 11, Eliza moved daycares and started in a Toddler classroom.  Gone were her days of pampering, cuddling, sleeping whenever she wanted (or not sleeping, as often was the case), drinking bottles, and all the general good-natured spoiling that occurred at her first daycare home-away-from-home.

But along with those changes came many good ones!  Being around big kids encouraged Eliza to start walking--two weeks in she no longer crawled.  She now takes a consistent 2+hour nap, even at home on the weekends.  She's being stimulated in a new environment and new bigger kids.  She spends more time with Mommy & Daddy, since we get to visit her each day.

We still totally miss our teachers/friends from Eliza's first daycare, but the change has been positive once the hard transition period was over.  Now there are no tears at drop-offs or after visits.  This makes us as parents extremely happy and more comfortable.

Here are some pictures from the past month of Toddler-hood.

Very First Day; not so sure about this

Water Table; 3 weeks later

Splish-splash!

Fun in the dirt

This play house is FUN!

Crafting by Eliza Mommy

That last picture was of the holiday craft sent home for us to complete together.  We were supposed to glue the blue and red pieces onto the white paper however the child liked.  As you can see, Eliza wasn't quite up to the task.  Her contributions to the craft were to roll the paper up, crinkle it, and rip a piece of the red stripe off.  Gary explained that she made the flag look like it was waving in the wind since it has a bend to to it!

Even though it was a difficult first month (for all 3 of us) adjusting to the new center, things are going great now.  Eliza is doing well and we can't wait to see her continue to grow & develop with the help of the new teachers and kids.

13 Months Old!

Eliza is quickly becoming more and more of a toddler!  She is now 13m old and is cruising all over the place.  We don't have stickers anymore for her monthly updates, but we'll stick with the consistent photographing and stat-like info each month.  But honestly, I don't feel like copying and pasting the "survey" each month anymore.  :)  So it'll be a little looser in presentation, too!

With some crazy sleep-hair!

The Basics:

• Eliza is weighing about 19lbs or so these days.  We have no idea how long she is!  
• She's consistently getting in new teeth, including one molar.  Thankfully she doesn't seem to be suffering too much through it!
• She's fitting comfortably in 6-12m clothing, as well as 9m and 12m clothes.  We still put her in pants in 3-6 size, though, and they make great capris!
• She's sleeping really well during her naps, around 2 hours during the day sometimes with a catnap on the way home from work/daycare.  She's going to bed consistently at 7:30pm and sleeps until 7am.

Eating:

• Eliza loves her table foods.  Favorites seem to be applesauce, macaroni and cheese, corn, avocado, black beans, and yogurt. She doesn't often turn things down, but she doesn't always eat meat well--we're pretty sure it's a texture thing.  
• Eliza's still drinking breast milk that was frozen during my pumping days.  We got the go-ahead from her pediatrician to stay with the breast milk until we don't have any left!  She doesn't drink it very well from a sippy cup at daycare, but that's ok.  Her pediatrician said we could continue giving her bottles for a couple more months (though it's not really encouraged), so we're making sure she's getting enough to drink in the morning and evening.  We'll be introducing cow's milk soon.

Milestones:

• First surgery--ear tubes June 15, 2012.  She did well and she's been healthy since!
• Walks instead of crawls!  For about 2 weeks now she's been walking 99% of the time.
• First time swinging in the big-girl swing--not a fan!
• Crawls up the stairs a lot!
• Falling asleep while eating.  :)
• Can show us her belly!
• Moving into the toddler room at daycare.
• First bang trim by Mommy

Her Loves:

• The remote--she walks around with it constantly!
• Her "anywhere chair."
• Pulling every item out of a basket, box, or bag.
• Sunglasses!

Our Loves:

• Increasing cuddles and kisses!
• When she blows us kisses!
• Seeing her excited and show her personality!
• Being able to visit her at the new daycare!

Her Dislikes:

• Having things taken away (the trick is to ask first; she'll often give them up willingly like it's fun!).
• Being sleepy.
• When Mommy&Daddy leave her at daycare.  (this is getting much better, though)

Our Dislikes:

• Seeing her upset when we go to work.
• When she wakes up before 7 on the weekends.
• When she bites!

self-portrait

Bye bye!

Happy 4th!

Yesterday we celebrated America's freedom day for the second time with Eliza!  And she wore the same dress she wore last year when she was 4 weeks old.  :)  It was quite big then, and just slightly small now (one button wouldn't close in the back).  She looked equally cute!

Then:

1 month old Eliza

Our little family, brand new

Now:

One year later!

13 months old

Cool girl

Fun with Uncle Adam:

Weeee!

We had a cookout with our wonderful backyard neighbors. There are 8 little girls between 5 houses!  There are plenty of boys, too, so we better watch out if we're still here in 15 years.  ;)

Swimming with friends

So much fun!

Loving on some ribs

Hanging out

Men + grill + baby

We had so much fun even though it was oppressively hot!  We hope you all had a fun day and stayed cool!